Looking at the Shepherd of Hermas through the experience of lived religion

Abstract

This essay examines the first four visions in the Book of Visions found in the early Christian work known as the Shepherd of Hermas wherein Hermas reports having had a visionary experience happen to him. These are highly mediated and thoroughly edited literary reports that draw upon the emotional contours of foundational narratives and myths. Despite their highly constructed elements, literary features of the visionary reports can nevertheless give some insight into how flesh and blood readers may have experienced the reading or hearing of these texts. With the help of the integrative approaches associated with the cognitive literary theory, this essay considers how the process of imagining the scenes in the Book of Visions participates in the formation of the self.